The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1887-09-29

SlliS- cIlu t41tIi dC UcJIH Say 10 tlSlu,
''Well done, good and faithful servant"
and that tells them: ''All is well, for
there is no hell" What glorious
heaven they hold before us! Come, let
us go in and see it. There is Herod and
all the babes he massacred. There is
Charles Guiteau and jim Fisk and
Robespierre, the friend of the French
guillotine, and all the liars, thieves,
house burners, garroters, pickpockets and
libsrtines of all the centuries. They have
all got crowns and thrones and harps and
scepters, and when they chant they sing:
Thanksgiving and honor and glory and
power to the broad religion that let us all
into heaven without repentance and faith
in those disgraceful dogmas of ecclesiasti-
cal old fogyism."
My text gives me grand opportunity
of saying useful word to all young men
who are now forming habits for life
time. OF what use to a stonemason or
q bricklayer is a plumb line? Why not
build the wall by the unaided eye and
hand ? Because they are insufficient, be-
cause if there be detection in the wall
it cannot further on be corrected. Be
cause by the law of gravitatlon a wall
must be straight in order to be symmet-
rical and safe. A young man is IN dan
ger of getting defect in his wall of
character that may never be corrected.
One of the best friends / ever had died of
delirium tremens at sixty years of age,
though he had not since twenty-one years
Of age-before which he had been dissi-
pated-touched Intoxicating liquor until
that particular carousal that took him
off. Not feeling well in a street on hot
summer day, he stepped into drug store,
just as you or l would have done and
asked for a dose of something to make
him feel better. And there was alcohol
in the dose, and that one drop aroused
the old appetite, and he entered the first
liquor store, and stayed there until thor
oughly under the power of rum. He en-
tered his home raving maniac, his wife
and daughter fleeing from his presence,
until he was taken TO the city hospital to
die. The combustible material of early
habit had lain quiet nearly forty
years, and that one spark ignited the con-
flagration. Remember that the wall may
be one hundred feet high, and yet deflec-
ton one foot from the foundation affects
the entire structure. And if you live a
hundred years and do right the last eighty
years. you may nevertheless do something
at twenty years of age that will damage
all your earthly existence. All you who
have built houses for yourselves or for
others, am I not right in saying to these
young men, you cannot build a wall SO
high as to be indepenent of the character
of its foundation? A man before 80
years Of age may commit enough sin to
last him lifetime. A cat that has killed
one pigeon cannot be cured. Keep it
from killing the first pigeon. Now John,
Or George, or Charles, or William, or
Alexander, or Andrew, or Henry, or
whatever be your Christian name or sur
name, say here and now: ''No wild oats
for me; no cigars or cigarettes for me;
no wine or beer for me; no nasty stories
| for me; no Sunday sprees for me. am
going to start right and keep on right.
God help me, for l am very weak. From
the throne of eternal righteousness let
down to me the principles by which 1
can be guided in building everything
from foundation to capstone. Lord God,
by the wounded hand of Christ, throw
me plumb line!'
Lord Nelson's general direction when
going into naval battle was: No man can
do wrong that places his ship close along
side that of the enemy. My friend, you
will never do wrong if you keep your life
close alongside the Ten Commandments.
Do right, and you can be as brave as
Maria Theresa, who rode up the Hill Of
Defiance and shook her sword at the four
corners of the earth.
"But, you say, ''you shut us young
folks out from all fun" Oh, no; I like
fun. ! believe in fun. I have had lots
of it in my time. But have not had to
go into paths of sin to find it. No credit
to me, but because of an extraordinary
parental example and influence l
was kept from outward transgres-
sions, though my heart was bad
enough and desperately wicked. I have
had fun illimitable, though I never swore
one oath, and never gambled for SO much
as the value of pin, and never saw the
inside of haunt of sin save as when ten
years ago, with commissioner of police,
and detective and two elders of my
church, 1 explored these cities by mid
night, not out of curiosity, but that ]
might in pulpit discourse set before the
people the poverty and the horrors of
underground city life. Yet, though ]
never was intoxicated for an instant, and
never committed one act of dissoluteness,
restrained only by the grace of God, with
out which restraint l would have gone
headlong to the bottom of infamy, have
had SO much fun that don't believe there
is man on the planet in the present time
who has had more. Hear it, men and
boys, women and girls, all the fun is on
the side of right. Sin may seem attract
i've, but it is deathful, and like the man.
chineel, tree whose dews are poisonous,
The only genuine happiness is in an hon
est Christian life. The Chippewa want,
ing to see God, blackens his face with
charcoal and fasts till he has a vision OF
what he calls God. My God can see
best when take my hat off and let the
sunshine blaze in my face, and after {
reasonable breakfast He is not God ol
blackness and starvation, but of ligh
and plenitude, and the glory of the
MONDAY sun is Egyptian midnigh
compared to it. There they go
, two brothers. The one was converted
a year ago in church, one Sunday morn
ing during prayer or sermon or hymn
No one knew it at the time. The persons
on either side Of him suspected nothing
, but in that young mans soul this proces
went on: Lord, here I am, youn!
| man amid the temptations of city life
and an afraid to risk them alone; com
, and be my pardon and my help; save m
from making the mistake that some 0
t nay comrades are making, and save m
, now" And quicker than flash Co
: rolled heaven into his soul, He is jus
, as jolly as he used to be, is just as bril-
) liant as he used to be. He can strike
f ball or catch one as easily as before h
: was converted. With gun or fishing ro
: in this summer vacation he was just a
t skillfui as before, The world is brighte
, to him than ever. He appreciates pict
/. ures, music, innocent hilarity, social 'life
q good jokes, and has plenty of fun, firs
{ class fun, glorious fun. But his brothe
: is going down hill In the morning b
: head aches from the champagne debaucf
I Everybody sees he is in rapid descent
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